


Planned Obsolescence

by NickiNoodle



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, This Does Not Have A Happy Ending Y'all, no beta we die like men, seriously everyone dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 14:50:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15821115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NickiNoodle/pseuds/NickiNoodle
Summary: Before androids became free, they’d called it planned obsolescence. Every android was given an expiration date so that CyberLife could create and sell more androids. But now it was a curse. A curse that ended lives all too soon and took family and friends away before their time.Inspired by a post on tumblr.





	Planned Obsolescence

**Author's Note:**

> This has probably been written about before, but I felt inspired to create something around the topic of androids having an expiration date.
> 
> it's not great, but I wrote it in like half an hour.
> 
> Inspired by this post on tumblr: https://everyonesaysimanerd.tumblr.com/post/177331957853/everyone-oh-no-dbh-android-human-relationships

Androids. 

Perfect beings with perfect intelligence. Perfect bodies, faces, and minds. And of course, now with free will.

The year was 2058. It had been twenty years since androids had won their independence. A lot had changed in twenty years. Androids went from seen only as tools to being seen as people. From just machines, to beings that could be viewed as family and friends. After years of strife, it seemed peace had settled between androids and humans. 

Of course, nothing is ever that simple.

In the past, androids tended to be replaced every few years. Newer and better models rendered the older, inferior models obsolete. If an android was kept around long enough, it would eventually become slow and inefficient and need to be replaced anyways. But now, with android independence achieved, development of “better” models had ceased in favor of creating upgrades for androids to make them more human-like. 

Androids broke. This wasn’t new news. But no one had cared before, because androids were, of course, just tools. Tools were expected to break.

It had started with Simon.

After a brief relationship with North, Markus and Simon had realized their feelings for one another and begun dating. They were that disgustingly cute couple everyone loves to hate. Markus was never one to hide his feelings from the world, and that extended to his relationship with Simon - ample public displays of affection, kissy emojis in their messages about each other on social media, the works. As soon as marriage between androids was legally recognized, the two of them had married in what was the most celebrated and monumental marriage of the time. 

November 2048. Ten years after android independence, and the first time Simon crashed.

It had been at a meeting like any other. Markus always insisted on having Simon with him at meetings because the two of them were a team. And Simon had always provided valuable, well-thought out responses.

So when Markus asked Simon a question and got no response, Markus knew something was wrong. Visibly, it looked like nothing was wrong - simply that Simon was staring off into space. But he was entirely unresponsive - to both words and to his shared connection with Markus.

What followed was months of visits to cyberlife hospitals trying to find something wrong, all as the crashes became more and more frequent.

“Markus, Simon’s far past the end of his lifespan. PL600 models were only designed to last ten years. It’s a wonder he’s lasted this long.”

Before androids became free, they’d called it planned obsolescence. Every android was given an expiration date so that CyberLife could create and sell more androids. But now it was a curse. A curse that ended lives all too soon and took family and friends away before their time.

March 2049. Simon shut down. 

There was massive public outrage at Simon’s death. Outrage that CyberLife was standing back and allowing androids to die prematurely. Newer androids were created with safeguards that would allow them to survive the length of a typical human life, but for all of those androids that had been created before, there was nothing that could be done. Some androids had lifespans that were longer than others, but it was never long enough. 

Within a few years, the only android alive who had participated in the revolution was Connor.

Connor. The RK800 model who had freed the trapped Cyberlife androids and turned the tide in Detroit on that one fateful day. 

Hank had always thought that Connor would outlive him. He was already older when he met Connor, and was in fairly poor health. At the start of their relationship, Hank had been apprehensive due to what he felt was his impending death. He didn’t want to trap Connor in a relationship with someone who would soon die. Connor had insisted that he was happy to get as much time with Hank as he could. So Hank had tried to improve his health as much as possible so he could get as long as possible with his android, even if he had thought too much damage had already been done.

What sweet irony it was that the android that had made him want to continue living was dying right before him. 

Planned obsolescence. Foolish of him to think Connor would be immune to it. 

Connor’s decline had been rapid. Likely due to how advanced of a model he was, when his functions began to fail, they all began to fail at once. Hank had been unprepared. February 2058, they were celebrating their fifteen year wedding anniversary. June 2058, Connor collapsed while at the precinct. August 2058, Connor was dying in his arms.

Connor. Beautiful, ageless Connor. Resting in his arms, an outside observer may think that they were just cuddling or sharing an intimate moment.

But Hank could feel it. The soft, gentle beat of his artificial heart in his chest was slowing. That gentle pulsing that had beat at a perfectly even 60 beats per minute pace for decades. That beat that had comforted Hank when he was consumed by nightmares and darkness and couldn’t see any way out. A rhythmic lifeline to hold on to. 

Hank held Connor’s hand in his own, feeling the smooth skin of Connor’s palm under his own. He had never wished more that he could communicate with him through a connection like other androids could. 

He knew Connor couldn’t hear him, but he spoke anyways in a futile attempt to tell him for the last time how much he meant to him. He let everything he felt out - gratitude, fear, loneliness. Love. Unconditional love. The kind of love that Connor had taught him he could feel again.

Maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, but he thought for a brief moment he saw a smile cross Connor’s face. 

And then the beating stopped. 

Hank stayed there for a long time, just holding him. He had promised Connor he wouldn’t grieve too much when he passed, but that promise felt hollow and far away now that he was actually gone. 

The sound of his own heartbeat was too loud in his ears. 

He gently set Connor aside and heaved himself from the couch, walking over to the table where Cole’s picture had rested for years. The picture that he’d stared at so many times with a revolver in his hand playing Russian Roulette in an attempt to join his son. He looked down at the white ceramic plate resting next to the picture. A dark pawprint was printed onto its surface, the word “Sumo” written in fancy script underneath. And underneath that, “2031 - 2040”. 

Next to the plate was the coin Connor had played with for years. The surface had worn down from excessive use, but Connor had insisted on keeping it. Somehow it had ended up in this little shrine they kept to those they’d lost, but Hank had always thought that it fit.

And next to that was a pistol. The one he promised Connor he wouldn’t use unless for self-defense.

He took it in his hand, and walked back to the couch. He rested Connor back in his lap, running his free hand through Connor’s hair. Just like he had so many times. Only this time, Connor didn’t smile in that way he always had when Hank became affectionate. 

Some promises were meant to be broken.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm considering expanding on Markus/Simon's and Hank/Connor's relationships in a chaptered fic, but I'm not sure yet!


End file.
